Charles Leclerc Reportedly Outperformed Carlos Sainz Because of a Veteran Fernando Alonso Tactic

After a disastrous start to his F1 2023 season, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finally put in a strong performance at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this past weekend. As per a report, his awareness of tire utility helped him beat Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso to third place.

According to AMuS, Leclerc drove a far better race than his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz because he took a leaf out of Alonso’s book and managed his tires better. The report states that the Monegasque driver knew the importance of saving his tires early on in the Grand Prix so that he could push toward the end.

However, when it came to Sainz, he seemingly did not manage his tires too well. The Spaniard had a horrible race weekend as he struggled with setup problems and barely had any confidence. As a result of the 28-year-old’s lack of confidence, Alonso beat him to fourth.

Charles Leclerc explained his strategy to beat Fernando Alonso

In his post-race interview with Damon Hill, Charles Leclerc explained how he took a page from Fernando Alonso‘s book to beat the Spaniard. “Fernando was pushing. I knew what his intentions were at the beginning. In the end, it was close but not enough for Fernando today,” the Monegasque explained to AMuS.

However, Alonso did not seem too pleased with how Leclerc beat him to third as he fired a ‘lucky’ jibe. After the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the 41-year-old explained how everything went in Ferrari’s favor, from the safety car period to the low degradation of the tires.

Alonso believes that a culmination of all these factors helped Ferrari finish ahead of him, or else Aston Martin easily had the pace to get past Leclerc. However, it is pertinent to note that while Alonso struggled to get past Leclerc, he did get past Sainz with relative ease. This suggests that Leclerc arguably did drive an almost ‘perfect’ race and finish ahead of Alonso on merit.

Carlos Sainz apologizes to Ferrari for ‘being too slow’

Even though Carlos Sainz finished the Azerbaijan Grand Prix a decent fifth, it is pertinent to note that he was way off the pace of his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc. Knowing that he was not at the level expected of him, the Spaniard told his team on the radio after the race, “Sorry for being so slow the whole weekend”.

Sainz’s acknowledgment of his underperformance did not end there, as he also wrote a Tweet later on. The 28-year-old explained that while he was happy to get some points for Ferrari, he did admit that he lacked confidence and that he just did not have the pace required of him.